Hungry for More: Romantic Fantasies for Women - just published! With stories by Tiffany Reisz, Greta Christina, D.L. King and more. 21 fantasies, from "Kitchen Slut" to a cougar to Craigslist sex to BDSM to bukkake to watching two men get it on, and more!

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

In case you didn't know, editing the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series for Cleis Press feels like the grand prize for everything I've been doing in the erotica genre since I started writing in 1999, something I couldn't have envisioned back then (and not just because the first volume wasn't published until 2000). As I'm finalizing every last detail of Volume 2 for a big December launch and accepting submissions for Volume 3, I'm even more honored and aware of my mission with this series: to publish as many authors from around the world, especially writers I've never worked with before, as I can. So to do that, I'm going all out to get these books out into the world, in print, ebook and audiobook form. So stay tuned because I am planning readings and events and will be reaching out to bookstores and making postcards and attending conferences and generally spreading the word. Want to help? Follow the series on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram and share our news!

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

My new book Begging for It: Erotic Fantasies for Women is now out in print and ebook!

I meant to post yesterday but that's the kind of summer it's been that I didn't get a chance. I'm proud of this anthology because I got stalled on it, not due to anything other than my own perfectionism with my story and the introduction and so it is coming out now rather than earlier. I am thrilled to be publishing so many authors I haven't worked with before alongside ones I have and that the book offers such an array of types of women's sexual fantasies and ways they go about fulfilling them. Hope you like it! There's also a beautiful post by Jade A. Waters on her blog about body image, erotica, sexuality, writing and her story "Apple Thighs" that I found very moving. It helped remind me why I edit anthologies: in order to share stories like hers with the world.

Judging from the title Begging for It, you might picture women with their tongues hanging out, perhaps a little drool pooling on their lips, come-hither eyes, kneeling, breasts thrust forward, ripe and ready and eager. And you’d be right—but not entirely right.
The women you’ll meet in this book manage to beg in all sorts of ways—boldly, silently, sweetly, submissively, nastily, hungrily. Sometimes, their begging is quiet ardent, clear as a whistle, but other times, they may not even know what it is they’re begging for. Each of them, though, is on a journey, a path to find something that’s missing from her life at the start. Some are searching for a lover—or more than one—while others have a partner in lust but are still seeking a bit of magic, daring, adventure, to lure them somewhere they’ve been longing—begging—to go, if only in their dreams.

For this anthology, I wanted stories that spoke to the many ways fantasies can play out in our lives. I wanted femme fatales and shy, unsure women, those who have glimpsed their truest desires briefly but have yet to fully indulge them. I wanted the kind of women whose sexual energy radiates off of them, the kind who turn heads no matter what they’re doing, the kind who look just-been-fucked—or just-fucked-someone—whether they actually have or not.

What I got were women who do indeed know what they want, whether it’s rope bondage or humiliation, a corset or an erotic adventure, robots or rough sex, but who are also open to finding unexpected, incredible pleasure they could not have imagined. They’re women on a mission, but they never know where exactly those missions will lead, and to me, that’s the best part of sex, and erotica: that each time might wow us anew. When Lauren Marie Fleming writes, “I was wet, so wet I thought I’d drip on the floor, and my nipples were as hard as my clit, both threatening to make me come with the slightest touch,” I’m right there with her, as Tabitha discovers what suspension can truly do for her, not to mention sexy Caleb.

These lusty ladies fall for cowboys, bosses, drag queens, rope wranglers, threesomes, Sirs and strangers, yet they never lose sight of that inner spark that has pushed them to say yes. In giving themselves to the objects of their affection, they’re gaining something equally valuable. Sometimes, there’s a different kind of give and take involved, such as with the masseuse in D. L. King’s “A Proven Therapeutic Fact,” who makes the delivery of a spanking a very special event.

These women are both begging and demanding, but most importantly, discovering the thrill of the unexpected. They are all sexual adventurers daring to go where they’ve never been before, or have only been in their dreams.

Monday, July 11, 2016

I love working with Rose Caraway, author, editor, audiobook narrator and host of The Kiss Me Quick's podcast because she is super talented, has an incredibly sexy voice and best of all, from my perspective as an anthology editor, makes the stories in my books available to anyone who wants to listen to them for free! That's what she's done with my story "Flying Solo" (click on the story title and scroll to the bottom to listen; press the arrow to the left of "libsyn" to start)) from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which stars a woman who usually picks up partners with her husband when they travel, but in this case is about to board a plane alone (hence the title) and has been instructed to bed someone she meets by her hubby. You'll have to listen to find out what happens next. And you can hear all 22 stories from the book ready by Rose on the Audible audiobook. Also, I couldn't be more thrilled with the hot graphic they came up with (catch the fun wordplay on the airplane; "Stupidfish" is their production company) that so perfectly captures the spirit of my story.

For more free erotica from the book, listen to these stories read by Rose:

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

I'm very proud of my new Elle.com interview on sex and chronic fatigue syndrome. I did one on sex and depression and have been wanting to explore physical health in addition to mental health. I hope you'll check it out, especially if your life is affected by CFS, and if you're a woman interested in being profiled in this series or know someone who is, contact me at ellesexstories at gmail.com and tell me a little about yourself and what you'd want to focus on in the interview, which can cover any aspect of sex and dating (although I have a fair amount of polyamory and open relationship interviews at the moment). Thank you!

Friday, July 01, 2016

The deadline to submit short stories to my Cleis Press anthology Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 is December 1st, exactly five months away, which means my goal is to get an average of 100 submissions per month between now and then. Why 500? Well, for the first two volumes, I got around 200 submissions for each one, and while I had plenty to choose from, as an anthology editor, more is more. My duty to my readers, in my opinion, is to provide them variety, both within each volume and in the series, and to my mind, the best way to do that is to have a huge range of authors and stories to choose from.

So I decided to set my goal of getting 500 submissions to the book. Now, this does mean that the most horrible part of my job as an editor, sending rejection letters, will also be greatly increased, but I am okay with that because I know that by doing more outreach than I have in the past, so that more authors see my call and, hopefully, submit, I am best serving my readers. I want to find the stories that come from authors who might not have ever considered themselves erotica writers, but had that one amazing idea floating around in their head. I want to see more submissions starring transgender women as protagonists. I want to see more relationships about people 50 and over. I want to see, in a word, more. I could give you a laundry list of what I'd like to see in December when I sit down to sort through submissions, but the truth is, what I love most about issuing a call for submissions is seeing what comes in that I love but didn't know I would.

This series doesn't have a theme per se, but each anthology seems to wind up coming together with some sort of through line. The unofficial theme of Volume 2, as you will see when it pubs in December, is travel. That wasn't something I listed in my call but it wound its way into many of the stories in the book and I appreciate that each author tackled it so differently.

So my favor to ask of you is: if you know someone who might be a good fit to submit a short story to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3, please pass along the call for submissions. I'm aiming to spread the word as far and wide as I can now to give authors the most time possible to write. I'm sure I will still get emails on December 2 saying "I just heard about this call..." and I'll have to say "Check back again next year," but in the meantime, I am doing my best to reach my 500 story submissions goal so I have a giant, sexy pile of stories to consider.